How to dispose of dirty polyethylene?

kozel@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 34 points –

I have a bunch of a polyethylene net interwoven with a hay, which would be impossible to separate. What is the best way to ecologically dispose of it? Should I give it to separated plastic (so it would be burned in an incineration plant), or put it to the communal waste?

5

Depends on your local waste service. I'd go for the "everything else" dumpster. Here in NL it is incinerated, which is a decent option for such a mix.

Any way to get the hay to decompose?

Anyway, it depends where you live, and whether the trash disposal system in your area does anything about recycling plastic at all. In so many places, all you throw into trash cans for plastics just goes into common waste anyway, so it might not be worth the bother.

I might try to compost it (and than separate the plastic and soil), unless I find better sollution, but I'm a bit afraid of animals messing it out from the composter.

Local trash company recycles the plastics (at least they claim so). I've also writtern them an e-mail, but I don't really expect to get an answer from them.

If they do, then I'd try to compost it. I try to not put plastic mixed with other stuff into plastic trash. From what I hear, a high enough amount of organic material in plastic trash just means they tend to bin it with general garbage, so it's counterproductive. Again depends on how the trash company operates.

I mean, if you're genuinely wanting to do what's best, the trash company takes calls for what bin to put stuff in.